Unemploymentcontinues to rise in Lisburn

According to statistics released by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, the number of people unemployed rose by just over 1% during the month.

Over the last year unemployment in Lisburn has gone up by just under 7%. In June a total of 3,287 people claimed unemployment benefit in the city, 46 more than the previous month.

In Northern Ireland as a whole there are 60,635 people claiming unemployment benefit, just over 5% of the working age population.

Lagan Valley MLA Trevor Lunn has expressed concerned about the rise in unemployment in Northern Ireland.

“These latest figures show that we are still feeling the effects of the global economic uncertainty,” said Mr Lunn. “It highlights the needs for radical action to be taken to reform our economy.

“We need to see immediate action to develop a green economy here. Through initiatives such as home insulation and boiler replacement schemes, we could create jobs especially in the construction sector as well as reducing people’s fuels bill.

“We could also benefit from renewable energy production as Northern Ireland is probably the second best placed country in Europe to avail from it given our location by the Atlantic Ocean, and if we see enough commitment by the Executive we could see a large number of jobs created,” he continued.

“In the long term we need to promote our private sector by encouraging foreign investment to Northern Ireland.”

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